Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-5-2025
Abstract
Cancer of unknown primary (CUP) is a rare metastatic malignancy where no primary tumor can be found. We report the case of a 71-year-old female with a strong family history of breast cancer presenting with isolated axillary lymphadenopathy after a tick bite. A biopsy of the axillary mass revealed poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma and after extensive evaluation, she was diagnosed with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma with unknown primary tumor. We present this case because of the role of confounding history complicating her initial diagnosis and bringing awareness to a rare disease.
Recommended Citation
Liang N, Alshal M, Goebel L J (March 05, 2025) Cancer of Unknown Primary With Squamous Cell Carcinoma Phenotype Presenting as Isolated Axillary Mass. Cureus 17(3): e80094. doi:10.7759/cureus.80094
Comments
The copy of record is available from the publisher at https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.80094. Copyright © 2025 The Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 4.0., which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.